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On Wednesday night, I went to a food truck round up at Esplanade Park in Fort Lauderdale. This was the first one of it’s kind since they all seem to gather in parts of Miami so I was super stoked to take part and try some of the food truck cuisine of South Florida.

Natalie was also game so I had a food truck partner in crime for the evening! When I rolled up I saw hoards of people and the parking situation was absolutely out of control but they have a ton of lots, garages, etc, around. We walked over to the park, this is what we saw:

Absolute madness.

I couldn’t wait to jump in there and get my grub on.

However, first we decided that a cold one was in order so we went over to the ticket booth to get some tickets for beer. The lady told us that they didn’t expect this kind of turn out so they were no longer selling tickets because there wouldn’t be enough beer. Major bummer, especially since hello-it’s July in Florida and cold beverages would be much appreciated. Even more so if they are adult friendly. But then luck be a lady tonight! A man came up to us and told us that we could have his tickets, no string attached.

So we did what any sensible person would do-double downed so we wouldn’t have to wait in line again

Unfortunately when we tried to go back to the line, the booths were already cleaned out so we should have triple downed instead. Oh well, they were still free.

We got in line for Mr. Good Stuff and waited in hopes that we would soon be greeted with some tasty arepas.

Notice how it’s light out in the picture? I hope so. We waited….and waited….and waited. I listened to some obnoxious dude behind us chatting away about mortgages to the girl he is with (I really hope they weren’t on a first date because homeboy slice killed his chances when he started talking short sales) and dealt with people in front of us letting their friends cut in line. Oh yeah. Didn’t mention how they were a kickball team so it just wasn’t one person cutting in line-it was almost an entire team. Ugh.

By time we got close enough to see what items they still had available, we decided to bail and go to another truck. It was nearing 815pm and I haven’t had anything to eat since lunch time so a side item such as fries wasn’t going to cut it. We checked three other food trucks but to our dismay, there was no real food. Each of the trucks were down to one or two items and they all seemed to be in the appetizer family. Can we say food truck fail? Pair that up with hot, humid, beer, empty stomach and we decided to leave and go to an establishment where we would be guaranteed food—Brick House Tavern. The place was hopping for 9pm on a Wednesday night and they definitely go with the notion that bigger is better-from big booths to big beer bongs at tables around us to the waitresses with big bosums that made me feel like I was at a Hooters instead. And hello-check out this big beer menu!

That’s what I’m talking about!

Food wise-everything looked good at the moment. I kinda wanted to get two or three bites of each appetizer since they equally looked amazing. They even had fried stuffed olives-I’ve never heard of such thing! After much deliberation I got the Fondue Mushroom Burger with a side of fries. Gah, this burger was tender, juicy and hit the spot.

I should have went with Natalie’s side item—garlic tater tots, topped with fresh garlic. They were out of this world and I had to stop myself from grabbing one! I loved this place and want to go back again for the chicken and waffle plate they have.

Even though the main goal of the night was to get some food truck food, it was still a fun evening. It was great to see the camaraderie of all the food trucks out there and the different kinds out there such as grilled cheese, sushi, dim sum, tacos and more. However, next time this happens, I will be there beforehand waiting in line anxiously for food.

Does your city have a big food truck following?

Have you “dined” at a food truck? If so, what’s your favorite?

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7 Responses to “Food truck fail”

I’m sorry your food truck fail was, well, a fail, but at least you were able to salvage the rest of the culinary evening. We just got our first food truck ever here in GR, but I haven’t tried it out. The whole craze is kind of weird to me. I guess I understand it in the big cities, but aren’t they just kind of like glorified food carts or ice cream trucks?

Anyway, Matilda needed to make an appearance. She might have scored you some free beer tickets.

Dude, I would have been so cranky with such a fail after all of that waiting. I’m glad you were able to redeem the evening! That’s pretty neat that you were able to score free beer- I would have been so pissed otherwise!

There’s a bunch of food trucks that are around my city in the spring/summer at lunch time to feed all of the state workers. It makes for some good people watchng!

We are severely lacking in all things food-truck where I’m from. Which is probably for the best as I would no doubt have to create disguises to protect my identity since I could see myself going back multiple times a day for fried food fixes.

for cities with a new found love of food trucks their events always suck. Here in denver things run out or there aren’t even enough food trucks for the people! Back in Austin food truck events had like 30 freaking food trucks!! They are tasty and so fun! Either way at least you got some yummy grub at the end of the day!

we have a TON of food carts in Portland – even vegan ones! 🙂 we have so many that they have “pods” – different addresses all over the city where there are several carts in one place. I love the food cart culture here – so many amazing things. I actually talked about opening one once… 😀